Scarcity: The Speaker’s Secret to Urgency & Bookings

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Do you want more stage bookings, re bookings and referrals as a speaker?

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Yes.

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Then understanding the psychology behind

what makes audiences say yes is essential.

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Today we are diving into part one of a

speaker focus, breakdown of Cialdini's

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famous principles of persuasion.

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Starting with scarcity.

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let quickly introduce all seven

principles, and then we'll zoom in

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on today's focus, which is scarcity.

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After scarcity, we've got authority.

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Social proof, liking,

reciprocity, consistency, and

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the more recently added unity.

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The unity part came when Cialdini

updated and revised his book on

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influence, the psychology of persuasion.

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So scarcity things that a

scarce become more in demand.

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I once was on a flight with a guy who

was a big Bjork fan and I like her.

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I have some of her stuff.

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I think I just had a CD that was given

away free with the Evening Standard

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paper in London, and a Bjork poster

that was inside one of the albums.

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And one of the things he said to me was

that, as a big Bjork fan, Those kinds

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of things are very hard to come by and

Bjork fans will pay a lot of money, so he

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potentially, what I had was very valuable,

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to the right market because

they were hard to find the free

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giveaway no longer available.

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If he didn't get it the first time around

the poster, limited edition with a certain

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amount of CDs, no longer available.

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Things become more valuable

the harder they are to find.

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So, I didn't take action there

and I didn't sell those things.

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But it was interesting to

know that potentially there

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was a huge demand for them.

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So scarcity works because people

want what's in short supply.

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If something's rare,

it feels more valuable.

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For speakers, coaches and consultants,

this can be one of the most abused

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of Cialdini's weapons of influence.

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So it might look like this.

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maybe you have limited spaces in a

course or in your coaching program.

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You might have some event only

bonuses or short window in which

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to book you at your current rate.

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So we use this to create urgency,

especially in sales from the stage.

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unless you have agreed to make sales from

the stage beforehand at an event, you

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probably won't be permitted to do that.

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Also, probably most of the places

that we go and speak, don't want

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us to sell from their stage either.

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And if you sneak those sales

in, then you certainly won't be

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permitted and definitely won't be

getting invited back or recommended,

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You might even get some very

unpleasant feedback from them as well.

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So for most speakers, this is probably

a good thing not to do sales from

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the stage because Selling from

the stage is a different skill to

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keynote speaking, and most speakers,

myself included, suck at it.

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Now, if this is sounding like a series

that you want to follow, stick around.

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You probably do want people to

take action in some way, whether

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that's through referrals or through

registering for your email list.

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You need to then deliver a sense of

urgency to get them to take action.

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So a suitable point in your talk,

you might ask something like,

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is this interesting and useful?

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Hopefully get some hands up, some heads

nodding to get some audience response.

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But then that can cue you up to be able

to say something like, some of you may

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know other places and organizations

that this would be beneficial to now,

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although my calendar is pretty busy right

now, dear, come and find me afterwards.

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And at the very least, at the very

least, we can arrange to follow up.

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So that could be a good way to do things.

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No pressure, no sales there for sure.

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But you have just given a call to

action for people who maybe think, all

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right, this could be good for my company

or for somewhere else that I know.

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Let's go and have a chat with the

speaker afterwards and find out about it.

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Now, that's just one

possible way of saying it.

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You need to say something to

that effect in your style and

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ideally in your voice as well.

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We don't just want to take

scripts from other people.

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That may not sound like the way that we

would say them speaking more naturally.

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If you are looking for

urgency, increase the scarcity.

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Maybe you're thinking of putting your

rates up and so you could announce

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that perhaps there are only six of

the 10 spaces available in your online

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event or coaching that are still free.

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Maybe you want to offer a free book or

other incentive as a fast action bonus

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at the event to get people to move.

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So here's the catch.

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Trust and integrity matter, and we're

in a low trust economy right now,

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so if you fake it, you break it and

so, so don't do things like saying

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you've only got five spots left.

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If you're gonna keep taking

more people, that's scarcity.

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Without integrity, it will tank

your credibility and your ethos.

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People often end up finding out about

these things, and even if you don't

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completely lose people's trusts,

your perfect future clients are no

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longer gonna buy into your urgency.

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They're not gonna trust it.

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So all the principles of influence

that Cialdini teaches can be used

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ethically or unethically, much same

way as a hammer can be used to build

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a building or to knock it down.

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The tool itself has no ethics,

only the person using it.

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So only use ethical scarcity that is real.

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So even if your calendar happens

to be wide open, you could

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still say, I've got some spaces

available on my calendar right now.

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I don't know how long

they're gonna stay open for.

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That's honest and potentially

effective as well.

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Okay.

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maybe it's not speaking bookings

that are filling up your calendar.

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Maybe it's other things, but still

I think that's a way of saying

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it, and staying in your integrity.

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I'll leave that to you to

decide if it fits with yours.

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if you're enjoying this, hit

like and subscribe so you don't

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miss the rest of the series.

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And if this has helped you to rethink

how you use urgency and scarcity as

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a speaker, give it a like, it helps

me to reach more speakers like you.

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Next week we're gonna dive into authority,

how to look, sound, and act more

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like the go-to expert in your field.

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